WORDS AND THEIR STORIES(30) - Financial Expressions

WORDS AND THEIR STORIES - Financial Expressions
By Frank Beardsley

Broadcast: Sunday, December 05, 2004

Now, Words and Their Stories, a VOA Special English Program about American expressions. I'm Rich Kleinfeldt with some financial words and expressions used in business and the stock market.

Our first expression is "in the red". It is another way of saying that a business is losing money. In the past, numbers in the financial records of a company were written in red ink to show a loss. A business magazine recently published a report about a television company. The report said the company was still in the red, but was able to cut its loss from the year before.

A profit by a business is written in black numbers. So a company that is "in the black" is making money. An international news service reported that a private health insurer in Australia announced it was back in the black with its first profit in three years.

Another financial expression is "run on the bank". That is what happens when many people try to withdraw all their money from a bank. A run on the bank usually happens when people believe there is danger, a bank may fail or close. Newspaper reports about a banking¹ crisis² in Russia used that expression. They said the government acted because of fears that the crisis would cause a run on the banks.

"When a run on the banks was starting, there was not much they could do." said a banking expert.

"Day trading" is a new expression about a system that lets investors⁴ trade directly on an electronic market system. The system is known as NASDAQ, short for the National Association of Securities Dealers⁵ Automated⁶ Quotation⁷. It was the first completely computerized stock market. It sells stocks of companies not listed on any stock exchange. Many high technology companies are listed on it.

Day trading companies provide a desk and a computer system to an investor³ who wants to trade. Individuals must provide fifty thousand dollars or more to the trading company to pay for the stocks they buy. Thousands of other investors do day trading from computers in their homes. A day trader watches stock prices carefully. When he sees a stock rise in price, he uses the computer to buy shares of the stock. If the stock continues to rise in price in the next few minutes, the day trader sells the shares quickly to make a small profit. Then he looks for another stock to buy. If a stock goes down instead of up, he sells it and accepts the loss. The idea is to make a small profit many times during the day. Day traders may buy and sell stocks hundreds of times each day.

Many day traders lose all their money in a week or so. Only about thirty percent succeed in earning enough from their efforts to continue day trading.

This VOA Special English Program Words and Their Stories was written by Frank Beardsley. This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

1 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

2 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

3 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

4 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

5 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

6 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

7 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。